The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

"New York, NY"

The city so nice they named it twice! The city so weird it features heavily in the following episodes!

Dorothy Cadwell Taylor

The Realest Housewife of Beverly Hills

confidante of kings, movie stars, and mobsters

The Countess di Frasso was the most famous hostess in the world, who threw parties for kings; actors, athletes and aviators; Nazis and mobsters.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Entertainment & Media, People & Places

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The Reverend May S. Pepper

A Good Thing to Die By

the Reverend May S. Pepper and Bright Eyes

This one has it all: the afterlife, evil stepmothers, Kickapoo princesses, the Romanovs, bigamy and fraud, ghost farts and spirit chickens.

Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13

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illustration from an edition of The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk

Nuns on the Run

The Awful disclosures of Maria Monk

In 1835 Maria Monk claimed that Montreal's Hôtel-Dieu convent was a vice den. She was making it all up... but Americans desperately wanted to believe her.

Categories: History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 13

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Charles Brewster Ross

Your Heart’s Sorrow

the 1874 abduction of Little Charley Ross

In 1874 four-year-old Charley Ross was kidnapped in front of his family's Philadelphia home... and became America's first case of kidnapping for ransom.

Categories: Intriguing & Unsolved Mysteries, People & Places, Series 11

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Dr. John Ballou Newbrough

Suffer Little Children

John Ballou Newbrough, Oahspe, and the Faithists of SHalam

In 1880, God dictated a new Bible to J.B. Newbrough, and then told him to move to New Mexico and open up the weirdest orphanage the world has ever seen.

Categories: Eccentrics & Prophecies, Most Popular, People & Places, Series 7

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political cartoon showing John Alexander Dowie being run out of Chicago

Marching to Shibboleth

a sordid story of faith healing, financial fraud, flat Eartherism, and figs

Forty miles north of Chicago lies Zion, IL, a sleepy city with a sordid history of faith healing, financial fraud, flat Eartherism... and figs?

Categories: Eccentrics & Prophecies, People & Places, Series 6

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